Orange, not red: City workers paint the town

If you've driven any of the streets leading to Scott Stadium in the last few weeks, you may have spied Charlottesville public works employees sanding off the old and painting on some new orange Vs. Are our tax dollars going toward UVA's logomania?

Well, not exactly, says city spokesman Maurice Jones.

"The University paid for it," says Jones, explaining that the City worked as a subcontractor for UVA and was paid $60 for each of the 100 "Vs" or Cavalier cross-swords that greet travelers arriving for a game.

Can just anyone hire the city to do some scraping-and-painting? Perhaps some parents-to-be could have the public works folks pop over to paint pink giraffes in the nursery?

Not likely, says Jones, citing the millions of dollars UVA sports programs bring into the city each year.

Painting the Vs "demonstrates that this community supports the university in its pursuit of both academic and athletic excellence," says Jones. "It promotes a sense of unity between the community and the university."